Day 7: Stillness

Today we woke up and headed out to see St. Michaelis Cathedral. It was an amazing church filled with beautifully done woodwork inside. Being incredibly cold today, and seeing as the wind was whipping around madly, we didn’t tour the perimeter of the church for very long. We then headed to the Museum of Photography, but alas, it was closed on Mondays.

Figuring that the next thing on our list was a bit farther outside of Hamburg, we decided to trek out there to maximise our time. We got in the car and drove to KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, which was a concentration camp, and is now a memorial and exhibition hall. Many times people refer to a stillness or quietness as being soothing, but it was not the case on these grounds. The eerie stillness and the chill caused a hollow feeling inside as we walked around the grounds of the former labour camp. We went to see two of the five exhibition halls which explained many aspects of the labour camp, life there, the brutality of the SS officers, and the some of the known tragedies at the location. After a couple hours, we left and headed for Lübeck.

There we firstly went to see the house of Thomas Mann, author and philosopher. I had hoped that it would be something magnificent, but the tour was costly, and one couldn’t even go into the bookstore without taking the tour. Therefore, we snapped a photo of the front of the house and went on our way. I should note that I accidentally drove onto the square and felt like a fool as I realised that there were people walking all around. We then parked a couple blocks away and walked through town as well. We stopped in at a coffee shop and had a cup of tea. I had a mixed-fruit tea, and while it was good, it didn’t compare to the cup I had in Dublin—this brew was a little tart for my liking.

Next we headed back to Hamburg, and the weather had turned nasty. It took us a bit longer to get back to Hamburg than I had predicted, but nonetheless we made it back. I looked up some restaurants for dinner, and found a couple. The first place ended up being insanely expensive, and even though many people claimed it was the best steakhouse on the globe, I couldn’t justify a meal costing a couple hundred euro. We ended up at a place called Mess, and that is exactly what it was. I must remember that ordering water in a restaurant results in a bottle of water costing five euro or more. I ordered this filet as it was the only thing on the short menu that I thought I would like, but it was rare even though I ordered it well. I took a few bites, and it was essentially gone. Not the greatest meal, but there was bound to be a bad one on the trip.